Microsoft Office 2007: Collaborating with Groove and Communicator

Overview/Description
Collaboration is at the heart of effective teamwork. When operating in traditional work structures, with all team members in one office location having regular face-to-face meetings, this collaboration was relatively easy. But work environments have changed. Offices are no longer confined to a room or a building and teams often comprise members in different countries, working in different time zones. Office 2007 facilitates collaboration with its Office Groove 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 applications. Groove brings small teams together in virtual 'workspaces', stored on each team member's desktop. All the files the team needs for collaboration are stored in these workspaces and are updated after each change whether the team member is online or offline. Office Communicator extends these capabilities by enabling those in different locations and time zones to communicate easily and quickly with a range of unified communication tools, including voice, video, and instant messaging. This course explores Groove 2007 and Communicator 2007 as collaborative software packages. It teaches how to create Groove workspaces, how to invite people to share that workspace, and how to connect with team members using chat or discussion boards. The concept of 'presence', which displays a team member's status, is explained in relation to Groove and Communicator. The course also introduces the benefits of an integrated Office system and demonstrates how to use Communicator for real-time collaboration.

Target Audience
End User

Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of the Microsoft Office applications, Windows operating system, instant message software, and Internet Explorer

Expected Duration (hours)
2.5

Lesson Objectives

Microsoft Office 2007: Collaborating with Groove and Communicator

create a shared workspace

invite team members to join a workspace

track important dates using the Calendar and schedule meetings with the Meetings Tool

use the discussion board

add files using the Files Tool and Sharepoint Files Tool

communicate with team members by sending messages

connect team members with workspace chat

create a shared workspace and invite participants to join

use collaboration tools |w

use an alert to link to an updated document and initiate a chat

send a Groove message

sign into Communicator and add contacts

identify how Communicator facilitates collaboration

customize your presence

send and receive instant messages

communicate using voice or video calls

add contacts to the Communicator 2007 window

use instant messaging to communicate with contacts

determine a contact's presence and initiate a communication

conduct an audio message